Just This Once
by SaturnOolaa
Summary: The wily Rikku convinces Paine to make a decision she will soon regret. I'm so coy. Well, there's no category for attraction, so romance will have to do. Shoujoai.


Disc: Not mine.  
  
AN: Well, for such a short fic, this took quite a while. For that I apologize. It took me much effort to get the right amount of smooshy without verging into sappy and overwrought. In the hands of a better author, this fic would have been much longer. It would also have been a shameless PWP unappropriate for 's current policies. (Better authors are encouraged to finish the fic. And then send it over to me so I can read it.) I do plan on writing more FFX-2, but it'll come pretty sporadicly, and you shouldn't expect too much in the way of plot. Many thanks to Meri, who's beta-fu apparently found absolutely nothing wrong with this fic. Maybe she was attacked by eye-stealing robots.  
  
JUST THIS ONCE  
  
Paine wasn't used to feeling powerless.  
  
She had always had the power before. Things had been simple. She could choose to like someone or dislike them, and then act accordingly. Even in the Crimson Squad, with her life in the hands of fools and ruthless men, she had managed to at least keep her pride. She had had her camera and her sword. The rest of the world had gotten out of her way.  
  
The past few weeks with the Gullwings had shaken her more than she could have expected. No longer could she pretend that Yuna wasn't having an effect on her. The physical attraction was a matter of course- Paine wasn't blind, and the Lady Summoner was gorgeous by anyone's standards. It was the amount of love mixed in with the lust that disturbed her. After becoming estranged from her old friends, she should know better than to let herself even make new ones. Falling in love, of all things, was an absolute mistake on her part.  
  
Unfortunately there was nothing she could do about it. Despite the fact that her feelings were obviously unrequited, and that she had been on her guard for situations like this, she had unknowingly relaxed and was now forced to suffer the concequences.  
  
And then there was Rikku.  
  
Ever since that first kiss, the blonde girl had persued her with a mixture of cute flirtation and unmistakable sexual overtures. Paine's days were now filled with friendly stolen kisses and gropes, dumb pick up lines, and giggly comments about sleepovers... even when Yuna was around. Paine wasn't really sure what to make of this. Rikku wasn't too young or anything, although she looked it, but she was even odder than her brother. Was she being serious? Did she even understand what she was doing? Weren't the Gullwings weird enough already without this crap?  
  
Paine snapped out of her deep thought mode and stared at the hot red of the Celcius' Deck. The ship was oddly quiet with Rikku confined to her bed. She had been mauled by a fiend pretty badly on the last mission, and although healing had fixed up her major injuries, an infection had left her with a bad case of the flu. YRP's actions had been suspended until further notice. Yuna was off 'gathering information'. Probably hoping for something that would lead her to her boyfriend, Paine thought, making an attempt not to feel bitter about it.  
  
Maybe she would go and visit Rikku after all. It would be more interesting than being left alone with her own boring thoughts, and she wouldn't have to stay long enough for the company to get annoying. Besides, how bad could things get? Rikku probably couldn't even move, let alone force her to stay if she didn't want to.  
  
Before she knew it, Paine found herself standing in front of Rikku's cabin. She rapped twice on the door. "It's me."  
  
"Come in!" returned Rikku's bubbly and slightly muffled voice. Paine pulled the door open, slipped off her boots, and stepped inside.   
  
Although it wasn't saying much, Rikku's room wasn't actually as messy as Paine would have first thought. In fact, it was usually quite clean. She had been in it a few times before, found herself utterly confused, and finally asked Yuna about it. Apparently Rikku just had too much energy to sit still and let derbis accumulate anywhere.  
  
Today, however, clothes and half-finished machines lay scattered on the flourescent green carpet next to the bed from whence Rikku had presumably thrown them. The occupant of the room herself sat on the bed, propped up by pillows, drinking a milkshake and flipping through a magazine. She looked up and grinned. "Oh, look who's come to see me!"  
  
Paine raised a hand in greeting. "Hey. Any chairs in here?"  
  
"No, but you're welcome to join me in bed," Rikku replied. She turned back the covers- she was wearing a sports bra and pink boxer shorts- and winked. "How 'bout it, sailor?"  
  
In response, Paine rolled her eyes, then picked up a pillow from the floor and threw it at her. "I'd rather stand," she replied in a monotone. "Besides, I'd catch your flu, and that would make two of us out of comission."  
  
"Owch!" Rikku's cry was buried under the pillow on her face. "Hey, that's mean!" she complained as she tossed the pillow back onto the floor along with her magazine. It fell open to a glossy colour shot of a machina Paine didn't recognize. "I don't have any pillows to throw at you. You could have spilled my milkshake and made me all sticky."  
  
"I see," said Paine, crossing her arms and shifting the weight on her stockinged feet. "That would certainly be a shame."  
  
Rikku pouted. "Aw. Did you miss my sexual innuendo?"  
  
Heaving a long-suffering sigh, Paine shook her head and uncrossed her arms again. "No. I just chose to ignore it. Where do you get this stuff?"  
  
"I make it up myself, obviously!" Rikku splayed herself across the mattress dramatically and did her best impression of a pinup girl. "And there's more where that came from. C'mon, Doctor P., it's time for my checkup..."  
  
Paine shook her head. Could this possibly get any stupider? "Rikku," she said, trying to be direct, "just give it up. You're making a fool of yourself. I don't know what you think you're doing, but it's not going to work."  
  
"That's what you think!" Rikku replied triumphantly. "Because, see, you already care whether or not I make a fool of myself! That means you're starting to like me!"  
  
It was such twisted logic that Paine had to stop and think about it for a moment. When she did, she had to grudgingly admit that Rikku sort of had a point. She was emotionally attatched to Rikku now in some way.  
  
Padding closer, she sat down on the bed cross-legged and stared intensely at Rikku. Well, she was no Yuna, but who was? From a gracious point of view, she wasn't bad company. And she was cute, albiet in a way that Paine didn't usually find attractive. The worst that could happen would be if Paine also caught the flu, and that wasn't so bad. Rikku definately did have her good points. Besides, it would be decidedly harder for her to talk with someone else's tongue in her mouth. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to just give it a try... whatever 'it' was.  
  
"You do realize I'm in love with Yuna, right? Doesn't that bother you?"  
  
Rikku shrugged her shoulders with a grin. "No, not really. You're not as special as you think. Most people around here have been in love with her at one point or another."  
  
"Does that include you?" Paine asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
Scootching forward so that she was practically sitting on Paine's lap, wrapping her arms around her neck, Rikku pouted her lips and batted her eyelashes. "If I tell you, will you kiss me?"  
  
Paine turned away, feeling Rikku's breath on her cheek. It was still cold from the milkshake. This was moving away from 'stupid' and into 'just plain ridiculous,' but maybe that was okay. Just this once. "If I kiss you, will you shut up?"  
  
"Hm... nope!"  
  
Kissing Rikku was not the same as being kissed by Rikku. Since she was completely taken aback- this was the first time Paine had even touched her- it seemed to take a few seconds for it to completely sink in. Paine ran her teeth slowly across her lips, watching as Rikku's mouth opened as if in surprise. Her tongue darted into Paine's mouth hungrily.  
  
"...There," said Paine shortly, coming up for air.  
  
Rikku looked slightly flushed and triumphant. "What was that about?" she asked, with a breathless little giggle.  
  
Paine gave her a long-suffering look and snaked an arm around her waist. "I'm going to give you what you want," she said, rolling her eyes, "in the hopes that you will finally leave me alone. Sound good to you?"  
  
Her only reply was a thumbs-up before Rikku tackled her and enthusiastically pinned her to the bed.  
  
THE END 


End file.
